Arts & Culture
5 Things Movies Get Wrong About the Medieval Era
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Article
There’s a reason you’ve never heard Nicole Kidman say, “We come to this place for a history lesson,” in her AMC commercials. Movies don’t have the best track record when it comes to historical accuracy, especially where the Middle Ages are concerned. Some dubious medieval tropes show up more than others, of course, and these are five of the biggest offenders. Credit: 20th Century-Fox/ Archive Photos via Getty Images Prima Nocta In one of Braveheart’s most upsettingly memorable scenes, Edward Longshanks invokes prima nocta (Latin for “first night”): the right of a feudal lord to ...Read More
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Arts & CultureArticle51The Hidden Origins of Famous Nursery Rhymes
The oral tradition of nursery rhymes goes back to at least the 13th century. But the golden age came in the 18th century, when many of the most famous verses…
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Arts & CultureFact12Mark Twain was the first person to publish a book that was written on a typewriter.
“I was the first person in the world that ever had a telephone in his house,” Mark Twain once claimed, adding that he was also “the first person in the…
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Arts & CultureArticle28Rock ’n’ Roll’s Greatest Muses
The idea of a muse — someone who serves as a profound source of artistic inspiration — is far from new. Muses were an everyday part of ancient Greek culture,…
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Arts & CultureArticle50Iconic Photo Booth Moments From the Last 100 Years
Since the photo booth’s debut 100 years ago, countless miniature images have slid out of these machines to be glued to scrapbooks, pinned on refrigerators, stuffed in drawers, and passed…
